sata / ide cd drive

ok, maybe I can explain - need a new cd/dvd drive. almost everything available to purchase now is sata, my old cd drive is IDE, but my hard drive is sata so I know my motheboard is capable of sata. Can I put one of these sata cd drive in my computer (hope that is plain enough) thanks

Check your computer manual. Might have two SATA ports (4 units allowed) but have to change a jumper on the motherboard because you can not use both the IDE and SATA at the same time if already having another one (which you do with the harddrive) on the motherboard (??). Unless your harddisk is alone and you make the DVD a slave drive on the already harddisk cable SATA. Well, I think I have both in my computer (older) but not sure unless I take a look at it. Perhaps nothing has to be changed also on the motherboard but checking in the computer manual to see should always be done.

fireberd


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But, if you are using it to burn audio CD's at a low speed (e.g. my standard is 8X) you will need another PATA (IDE) drive.  SATA drives will only go down to 16X and that can be a problem with many older Audio CD players (I have a 5 disc JVC CD player in my stereo system rack and it will skip or not play audio CD's burned at 16X).  

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It might be difficult to check the specs of some of these drives, but this LG GH24NS70 has a spec sheet on LG's website that shows CD writing at 4x, 8x, 16x CLV, 24x, 32x, 40x PCAV, 48x CAV.

fireberd


The lower burn speeds for that drive are only for DVD, not CD.  It actually states CD-R 48X but that is the maximum speed.

I've been all over the web, spent hours searching for optical drive specs and I can't find a SATA drive that will burn CD's lower than 16X.

I have a bank of 5 USB connected PATA drives (each drive in a separate USB enclosure) and they will all burn audio CD's at 8X.  They are all TSST (Samsung) CD/DVD burner drives.  With them each connected via USB, I can burn up to 5 audio CD's at a time (I use Nero). 

If by "that drive" you mean the LG drive I posted just above, I copied the info for my post from the LG spec sheet for CD-R writing for that drive.

The link I posted is the spec sheet from the LG website, accessed by the literature and downloads link from the product description for that drive. On the first page, it looks like a glossy brochure that shows the various maximum performances, but the 2nd page has the specs, c.f. TRANSFER RATES - WRITE --- CD-R 4x, 8x, 16x CLV, 24x, 32x, 40x PCAV, 48x CAV. Yes, printed April 2011. Looks like it has been on Newegg for a while.

I ordered one from Amazon, as they have a very liberal return policy.  If it works as advertised, great! and I'll keep it.  If not it will go back to Amazon.  I need to replace a noisy LiteOn SATA drive anyway (it works, just noisy).

The LG drive came in from newegg.com and installed.  It will burn at 8X, but not 4X as listed in their specs.  This is the ONLY SATA drive I've found that will burn at less than 16X. 

I use 8X as my audio CD burning "standard". 

The downside, the drive tray is flimsy and seems to be "cheap".  Who knows how long it will last.

I also thought it wasn't necessary to burn at slower speed but some of my disks burned at MAX speed didn't play correctly on my portable CD player and in my car but when I burned them at 8x, they played OK.

There is perhaps an over-emphasis on burn speed here. While it is the subject of a great deal of advice and speculation, any good quality scientific study of the issue seems to have been buried in the discussion, hidden as proprietary data by the disk or writer manufacturer's, or was never done in the first place. It does make good sense that a recordable CD with sufficiently sharp and deep pits (actually disturbance of the dye since recordable CD's do not have pressed pits buried in the medium) will have a better chance of playing on a wider variety of disk readers. That is, however an issue of burn quality, not burn speed per se. It is also an issue of player quality. There are older dedicated CD music players out there that will not play a recordable CD from any source, and tweaking burn speed will not make them do so.
 
The speed hypothesis is based on the idea, that a burn point on a rapidly moving disc is exposed to the laser for a lesser time, and that the power cycle of the laser has a significant ramp up/down time. The first should produce a less deep pit (intense disturbance), and the latter would result in a less distinct burn region. The loss of distinctness would be due to the rising edge of the laser power being spread over a larger linear path, producing a dye distubance density that is more like a sine wave than the desired square wave. If that were the only factor, there would seem to be no need for data.
 
Unforunately there are other factors that need to be considered, and the relative contribution of those factors to the problem turns a simple solution into an enigma. For one thing, the power cycle of the laser, and the total delivered power are factors. Burners designed for higher speeds have more powerful and faster responding lasers than the ones used in the older burners. Without knowing a great deal more about these devices than the manufacturer reveals, it is difficult to predict the extent to which underburn and indistinct problems will result from a particular speed. There is also the potential for over-burn if a too-powerful laser rests on a point for too long causing spread from the desired point into the surrounding medium--a puddle instead of a pit. In extreme cases this could cross the linear boundary into adjacent "grooves". A similar problem used to affect the cutting of grooves in masters for vinyl records. The "mastering engineer" was the guy with the experience and judgement to be able to control the amplitude of the signal (loudness at various frequencies) driving the device to prevent the cutting edge from gouging into the next track and ruining the master.
 
The sensitivity of the dye is perhaps the major factor. Blank CD's designed for high speed burning, should be optimized to respond to high speed burning. The dye may well be the most significant factor in determining if a less responsive CD player chokes. Certain dye "colors" have a bad reputation with dedicated CD players. It is not necessarily true that a CD that will not play in every reader has more "errors" than one that will. The reading laser may be respnding to frequency and reflectance as much as to the depth or distinctness of the burn.
 
This is not just a "quality" argument. A "high quality" CD from a respected manufacturer, may still be optimized (intentionally or not) to work at a specific speed, responding to a specific laser frequency, and burn duration. It is not immediatly obvious that burning such a CD on an older burner at a lower speed will produce fewer errors. The control firmware for the burner may also be a factor as it nominally controls the burn timing. So different burners using different lasters, firmware and media would be expected to produce different results.  In some cases the slowest available speed may at least theoretically not be the best.
 
Ideally, if you are doing production burning, you would test a variety of media and speeds for your equipment using software that can compare the read result to the intended written data. You would also test an impractically large number of players to see if your ideal media and speed combination approaced a universal compatibility. As time goes on, and the CD players are designed to accept a wider variety of media (and older players hit the landfill) this will probably be less of an issue. In the mean time, if you want to keep your customers happy, a liberal return policy might be the best solution.
 

Excellent post David.
So many people just blindly use the "tools" and the "medium" with out even realizing what it is they are dealing with.
 Just the other day I had to run off a few disks and I was to lazy to go upstairs to the studio so I used our Office PC. I use Nero and I always ask for data verification and check the "let Nero determine speed" box. After 2 disks did not pass I gave up and resumed on my studio DAW computer without issue.
You should always take the time to run Data Verification if you are charging for the product. There's no need to test the CD. Data verification of properly mastered wave files should play on all machines that are up to it.
On the topic of older CD players, It was explained to me that they used to use weak lasers in the early days. The weak laser cannot penetrate the thick layer used on CDR's and especialy CDRW's.
 
 
And musicians can get ripped off by falling victim when they send there masters for replicating. There are a lot of companies offering very low price replicating and no one bothers to ask if these are pressed or burned CD's because most do not realize the difference. If it looks and sound like a CD, it must be a CD.
 
If you are a serious artist and wish to sell a top notch product, Then have your music properly mastered and "pressed" to a real CD. A burned CD is fine for those on a budget but it is not worth $20! I don't care how "nice" the label is.
 
A burned CD will always be sensitive to sunlight and is easily destroyed by scratches.
That said, I have found burning CD's from the studio to be slowly fading away.
I put everything on flash drives. Most musicians have one in their pocket. We had a band practice last night and everyone brought there flash drives. All go home with shared files to practice including band mates originals.
 
And then we post on the net where you can sell your music if you choose.
CD's are sort of -sell at concerts or let granny listen thing  now.